Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-18
A Pair of Funny TOads.

HARRIsBURG, Penn, July 2l.-"No
one knows the funny things toads will
do.u said the Hon. James A. Swee-
ney. a Luzerne county naturalist and
ex.member of the Pennsylvania Leg
islature. "On a recent cloudy day,
after hard rain, there was cool
breeze blowing. was walking i'll a
friends garden, near Hazleton, when
I heard peculiar sound. Looking in
the direction from which it came l
saw toads in an open space in the gar
den. One was quite large and the
other was at least a third smaller.
They were both standing on their
hind feet, facing each other. The
large toad had its fore feet over on
each side of the smaller toad's shoul-
ders, the small toad his left fore foot
on the large ones left leg. AS they
stood in that way they uttered strange
cultural sounds, as if they were dis
cussing some subject between them
selves. Suddenly the small toad
thrust its right foot, or hand, you
might call it, against the large ones
stomach, and the next instant the lat
ter threw the former to the ground
and lively wrestle between them
began. ,
"During the struggle on the ground
the skins of both toads burst open on
the back, and supposed l was about
to see the interesting process OF toads
taking off their old coats, rolling them
up in little balls and swallowing them,
as naturalists say they do. did wit
ness the process of shedding the skins,
but something much more singular
than the swallowing incident then
occurred. The day was raw and
windy, as | said, ana after the toads
had rubbed their skins in comical
way toward their heads until they
had both pulled themselves clear OF
them each one began to shlver very
perceptibly with the cold. Suddenly
the small toad hoped quickly to
where the skin of the big one lay, and
picking it up in his mouth hoped
away several feet. The big toad fol
lowed the purloiner OF his cast-off
clothing with his eyes, and gave two
or three appealing croaks, but made
no effort to recapture the stolen goods.
When the small toad saw that he was
not followed he deliberately set to work
to don the skin he had stolen. 1t took
him some time to do it, but he
finally accomplished his purpose and
vent masquerading around in the mis-
it garment exactly like n clown IN Il
ircus wearing the big, baggy costume
ONE of them appear IN.
"The little fellow seemed to enjoy
le novelty of the situation and hop
ed around the large toad in what
ust have been tantalizing manner.
he big toad was shivering like per-
n chilled through, and by and by
cked up the skin of the small one
d began to force it on
N his body. The process was
lifficult one, but after several min
IS of unceasing effort he stood hab-
ated in the cast-oH garments OF his
ninutive companion. If the effect
the big skin on the little toad had
N comical, that OF the little skin on
big toad was more SO. The sleeves
the coat, so to speak, only came
way down the arm, and the legs
the trousers covered the toad's
as though they had been
.kerbockers. The body OF
garment was SO tight
the toad could not work
er his legs or his arms, and he stood
e the picture OF comical despair;
md by he began to swell himself
Ind that apparently stretched the
for he was able afterward to
d away slowly. He followed the
81 toad into the bushes in a digni-
fmanner and both disappeared.
v the outcome of this curious ex-
che of clothing was | never knew,
bhe incident satisfied me that
todo funny things sometimes"